EN: Good Morning Everyone! IT’S SNOWING!!!! You guys, I’m shocked that winter is here. The only good thing, regarding this change in weather is the fact that I finally get to wear all my cold weather clothes! Also, I don’t have to feel bad, that I am currently planning 5 more Coats – I mean a girl’s gotta have outerwear choices, right?

EN: Which brings me to today’s outfit: The Named Olivia Wrapdress and the Silvia Coatigan for Schnittchen. Both projects definitely fall under my more grownup fabric choices, black and grey and white that go with EVERYTHING! I actually made this coat for my guest blogpost for Schnittchen, that you can find here (IT’S IN GERMAN!).

EN: I’ve actually had the Olivia dress in my stash for the past 3 years… as a printed PDF….when I still taped up PDFs! Anyway, after seeing Nina’s version, I knew I need to board that train and sew my own OLIVIA, stat! I used this cotton Jersey from Like Sew Amazing and won’t lie when I mention the horrendous amount of fabric, you need for this project! YIKES!!!! I barely managed to squeeze out all the pieces using 2,5 meters of fabric. I sewed everything on my serger.

EN: I do need to apologize to my serger at this point. After badmouthing her, changing her blade, changing the thread brand to coats, oiling her and still having terrible results…some of the ladies who also went to the sewing retreat in Possenhofen (Damn I still owe you a blogpost for that.. SO SORRY!) told me to change the needle. I am so embarrassed to admit this, but I have NEVER EVER CHANGED THE NEEDLE ON MY OVERLOCKER!!!!! I’ve had this machine for 2 years, no wonder the stitches were terrible!!!! Once I put in new needles the stitches were perfect… I nearly shed a tear….I have now vowed to change the needles after every project, as I do this with my sewing machine!

EN: Now that my serger and I are besties again and I bought 30 Overlock needles from Amazon- we can get back to OLIVIA! I sewed her up in a size 40, next time I will use a size 38 as she’s a bit big. The instructions are a bit meager but you can still figure out what to do pretty easily. I didn’t stitch down the facing of the neckline, as I wanted to avoid the topstitching line and keep everything simple, but since the facing keeps trying to escape when worn, I’ll have to do this over the weekend.

EN: The only thing I really didn’t like about this pattern, was attaching the elastic to the seam allowances of the waistline. That was truly a horrible task. I can’t complain though, the dress turned out soooo well! I love her! I’m so pleased I’ve added another jersey dress to my winter wardrobe and I have been eyeing the Pilvi Dress from Named and think she will be my next project, so keep your eyes peeled!